Precis Historique et Experimental des Phenomenes Electriques depuis l'Origine de cette Decouverte jusqu'a ce Jour . . . Seconde edition, Revue et augmentee. by SIGAUD DE LA FOND, Joseph-Aignan (1730-1810) - 1785

Paris:: Rue et Hotel Serpente, 1785., 1785. 200 x 125 mm. 8vo. xvi, [4], 624 pp. Half-title, 10 folding engraved copperplates (by Sellier), [pl. 3 has a manuscript annotation relating to the electrical machine of the author's design], errata; lacks the 2 privilege leaves at end. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards; cover corners showing, joints mended with kozo. 19th-century stamp on title and elsewhere of Binet Dufour; inscription "Electrobiologique Traitement Electropathique, Par M. Guerin, Boulevard de Strasbourg. . ." Occasional neat manuscript ink corrections or marginalia. Very good. Second edition of a work on electricity and magnetism originally published in 1781. The work mentions a number of electrical devices used to make demonstrations and experiments. This period marks a stark contrast in instruments used for experiments and instruments used for demonstrations. See: Thomas L. Hankins, Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination, 2014, p. 58. / "The final, greatly enlarged edition . . . of this comprehensive history of electricity and magnetism, and their development and applications, including use for curing diseases. Benjamin Franklin and his experiments are fully discussed as are those of Gilbert, Hauksbee, Ingenhousz, Nollet, [Volta] and others. Extensive accounts are given of atmospheric electricity and lightning conductors, with some original experiments of the author, who claims to have been the first to use glass plates with electrical machines in 1756. He also described an improved Leyden jar. "A work of merit" (Wheeler Gift). As with his other works on physics, this contains numerous references to chemical experiments and phenomena." :: Neville catalog. / Arranged in five sections, the first offers a history of the origins and progress of electricity to the present period (c.1785) and the Leyden jar. Section II relates to "Leyde" (Leyden Jar invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden, with Ewald Kleist also achieving the same invention) and the theories of Benjamin Franklin. Sec. III: Analyzing electricity and comparing it to thunder and magnetism. Within this section deals with meteorology as thunder applied to electrical phenomena, and also the means to divert lightning, the relationship between magnetism and electricity. Sec. IV: Applications made using electrical fluid. With electricity in a void, in electrical fish, electrical properties of tourmaline, "The electric stone." Also: using the electrophorus generator [invented by Johan Carl Wilcke in 1762], producing a static charge. Article V in this section offers more on two pocket-sized electric machines that produce 'some strange phenomena of electric commotion.' The volume finishes with four proposed problems. Adding to all this, the half-title bears an advertisement for his nephew* Rouland, a demonstrator of physics at the University of Paris, and also a course for electrical instruments. See: Rouland, Description des machines electriques a taffetas, de leurs effets et des divers avantages que presentent ces nouveaux appareils, 1785. * [Mottelay suggests "N." for Rouland's first name, though [WorldCat] and other sources do not have his first name]. See: Hankins & Silverman, p. 59. / Provenance: "Binet-Dufour á Houdan s soise proprietaire" :: a French instrument maker, known for their barometers. / Sigaud de la Fond (1730-1810) was a pupil of Nollet, and taught experimental physics in Paris, succeeding him in 1760 at the College Louis-le-Grand, following his mentor. "Sigaud was a prolific writer in the fields of experimental physics, chemistry, medicine, and (apparently as a consequence of his early Jesuit training) theology. Experimental science was a fashionable pursuit among the leisured classes in eighteenth-century France, and Sigaud was one of several illustrious popularizers who satisfied the intellectual appetites and curiosities of an ever-in-creasing number of amateurs of science. Popular interest tended toward the more spectacular examples of natural phenomenon: and lectures accompanied by demonstrations, especially on electricity and on the newly discovered gases, always attracted large and enthusiastic crowds." :: Encyclopedia. / Bakken p.107; Blake p. 418; Ekelof, 497; Gartrell, 492; Mottelay, p. 280; Roy G. Neville II, pp. 475-76; Poggendorff, II, p. 927; Wellcome Library 48238/B; Wheeler Gift 505a. See: Thomas L. Hankins, Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination, 2014, p. 59. / See: Isaac Benguigui, Nollet (Jean Antoine, Abbe), Jean Jallabert, Theories electriques du XVIIIe siecle: Correspondance entre l'Abbe Nollet (1700-1770) et le physicien genevois Jean Jallabert (1712-1768), Geneve, 1984, page 40.